No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Agency Entrenchment: Sociological Legitimacy in a Politically Contested Occupation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2024
Abstract
This study investigates how agents in contested occupations justify and legitimize their work. It examines Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attorneys who prosecute immigrant removal cases on behalf of the federal government, delving into the narrative strategies that attorneys use to attain self-legitimacy within the agency. While existing literature suggests that self-legitimacy stems from either public support or an intrinsic belief in one’s deservingness of power, this study introduces a third pathway to self-legitimacy, agency entrenchment, in which government prosecutors draw on a highly internalized sense of patriotism and a duty to their organizational role, in the face of heightened public protest and changing administrative priorities. Analyzing forty in-depth interviews with ICE attorneys, this study identifies two primary approaches to agency entrenchment. The first is a bureaucratic approach, in which attorneys derive an internalized sense of duty from the existing law. The second is an enforcement approach, in which attorneys derive moral authority from what they see as their protector status. By deploying these narratives of self-legitimacy, ICE prosecutors attempt to resolve perceived conflicts between their legally mandated responsibilities and the ethical and reputational criticisms they encounter. The findings contribute to the broader understanding of the occupational dynamics between political polarization and law enforcement prosecution.
Keywords
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Bar Foundation
References
Arendt, Hannah. 1964. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin Classics.Google Scholar
Armenta, Amada. 2019. Protect, Serve, and Deport. Protect, Serve, and Deport. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1353/book.63426.Google Scholar
Armenta, Amada, and Alvarez, Isabela. 2017. “Policing Immigrants or Policing Immigration? Understanding Local Law Enforcement Participation in Immigration Control.” Sociology Compass 11 (2).Google Scholar
Asad, Asad L. 2019. “Deportation Decisions: Judicial Decision-Making in an American Immigration Court.” American Behavioral Scientist 63 (9): 1221–1249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219835267.Google Scholar
Ashforth, Blake E., and Kreiner, Glen E. 1999. “‘How Can You Do It?’: Dirty Work and the Challenge of Constructing a Positive Identity.” Academy of management Review 24 (3): 413–434.Google Scholar
Barker, R. 2001. Legitimating Identities: The Self-Presentations of Rulers and Subjects. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490163.Google Scholar
Bigo, Didier. 2002. “Security and Immigration: Toward a Critique of the Governmentality of Unease.” Alternatives. Lynne Rienner Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754020270s105.Google Scholar
Borrelli, LM, and Lindberg, A. 2019. “Paperwork Performances: Legitimating State Violence in the Swedish Deportation Regime.” Journal of Legal Anthropology. https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/jla/3/2/jla030204.xml.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Mary. 2019. “Affect and Authority in Immigration Detention.” Punishment and Society 21 (5): 542–559. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474518803321.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Mary, and Kaufman, Emma. 2013. “Gender and Punishment.” In Handbook of Punishment and Society, edited by J. Simon and R. Sparks.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Mary, and Kellezi, Blerina. 2017. “Doing Research in Immigration Removal Centres: Ethics, Emotions and Impact.” Criminology and Criminal Justice 17 (2): 121–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895816646151.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Mary, and Turnbull, Sarah. 2015. “Immigration, Detention, and the Expansion of Penal Power in the United Kingdom.” Extreme Punishment, 50–67. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137441157_4.Google Scholar
Bottoms, A, and Tankebe, J. 2012. “Beyond Procedural Justice: A Dialogic Approach to Legitimacy in Criminal Justice.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.Google Scholar
Bradford, B, and Quinton, P. 2014. “Self-Legitimacy, Police Culture and Support for Democratic Policing in an English Constabulary.” British Journal of Criminology.Google Scholar
Chacon, Jennifer M. 2009. “Managing Migration through Crime.” Columbia Law Review Sidebar 109.Google Scholar
Chacón, Jennifer M., and Bibler Coutin, Susan. 2018. “Racialization through Enforcement.” In Race, Criminal Justice, and Migration Control: Enforcing the Boundaries of Belonging, edited by Bosworth, Mary, Parmar, Alpa, and Vázquez, Yolanda, 159–175. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198814887.003.0011.Google Scholar
Correa, Jennifer. 2011. “Unheard Voices at the Texas-Mexico Border Wall: Fragmentation, Citizenship, and Opposition in a War on Terror.” University of Missouri-Columbia ProQuest Dissertations. https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/14201.Google Scholar
Cortez, David. 2017. “Broken Mirrors: Identity, Duty, and Belonging in the Age of the New La(Tinx) Migra.” https://doi.org/10.7298/X4SF2TB2.Google Scholar
Cortez, David. 2020. “Latinxs in La Migra: Why They Join and Why It Matters.” Political Research Quarterly, June. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912920933674.Google Scholar
Cox, Alexandra L., and Gripp, Camila. 2021. “The Legitimation Strategies of ‘Progressive’ Prosecutors.” Social and Legal Studies 31 (5): 657–678. https://doi.org/10.1177/09646639211060814.Google Scholar
Crooke, Catherine L. 2023. “US Asylum Lawyering and Temporal Violence.” Law & Social Inquiry, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/LSI.2023.45.Google Scholar
Dowling, Julie A., and Xavier, Jonathan Inda. 2013. Governing Immigration through Crime: A Reader. Stanford Social Sciences, an imprint of Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ellermann, Antje. 2005. “Coercive Capacity and the Politics of Implementation: Deportation in Germany and the United States.” Comparative Political Studies 38 (10): 1219–1244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414005279117.Google Scholar
Ellermann, Antje. 2006. “Street-Level Democracy: How Immigration Bureaucrats Manage Public Opposition.” West European Politics 29 (2): 293–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380500512627.Google Scholar
Ellermann, Antje. 2009. States Against Migrants. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511626494.002.Google Scholar
Farrell-Bryan, Dylan. 2022. “Relief or Removal: State Logics of Deservingness and Masculinity for Immigrant Men in Removal” 56 (2): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12604.Google Scholar
Frohmann, Lisa. 1991. “Discrediting Victims’ Allegations of Sexual Assault: Prosecutorial Accounts of Case Rejections.” Social Problems 38 (2): 213–226. https://doi.org/10.2307/800530.Google Scholar
Gau, Jacinta M. 2014. “Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy: A Test of Measurement and Structure.” American Journal of Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-013-9220-8.Google Scholar
Godsey, Mark. 2019. Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Golash-Boza, Tanya. 2016. “Racialized and Gendered Mass Deportation and the Crisis of Capitalism.” Journal of World-Systems Research 22 (1): 38–44. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2016.610.Google Scholar
Hadzhidimova, Lora. 2023. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” In The Handbook of Homeland Security, edited by Scott, N. Romaniuk, Scott Catino, Martin, and Augustus Martin, C.. Boca Raton: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Harkin, Diarmaid. 2015. “Police Legitimacy, Ideology and Qualitative Methods: A Critique of Procedural Justice Theory.” Criminology and Criminal Justice 15 (5): 594–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895815580397.Google Scholar
Hiemstra, Nancy. 2014. “Performing Homeland Security within the US Immigrant Detention System.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32 (4): 571–588. https://doi.org/10.1068/d13021p.Google Scholar
Jackson, Jonathan, Huq, Aziz, Bradford, Ben, and Tyler, Tom. 2013. “Monopolizing Force? Police Legitimacy and Public Attitudes toward the Acceptability of Violence.” Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 19 (4): 479–497. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-35899-001.Google Scholar
Johnson, Cathryn, Dowd, Timothy J, and Ridgeway, Cecilia L. 2006. “Legitimacy as a Social Process.” Source: Annual Review of Sociology 32: 53–78. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.32.061604.123101.Google Scholar
Johnson, Kevin R. 2021. “Bringing Racial Justice to Immigration Law.” Northwestern University Law Review 116 (1).Google Scholar
Levinson, Daryl, and Sachs, Benjamin I.. 2015. “Political Entrenchment and Public Law.” Yale Law Journal 125 (2).Google Scholar
Macias-Rojas, Patrisia. 2016. From Deportation to Prison. New York University Press. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.18574/9781479858422/html.Google Scholar
Massey, DS. 2015. “A Missing Element in Migration Theories.” Migration Letters. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=478407.Google Scholar
Nix, Justin, and Wolfe, Scott E.. 2015. “The Impact of Negative Publicity on Police Self-Legitimacy.” Justice Quarterly 34 (1): 84–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2015.1102954.Google Scholar
Offit, Anna. 2019. “Prosecuting in the Shadow of the Jury.” Northwestern University Law Review 113 (5).Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2019. “Public Expresses Favorable Views of a Number of Federal Agencies.” https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/10/01/public-expresses-favorable-views-of-a-number-of-federal-agencies/.Google Scholar
Prasad, Monica. 2018. “Problem-Solving Sociology:” American Sociological Association Featured Essays 47 (4): 393–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094306118779810.Google Scholar
Puthoopparambil, Soorej J., Ahlberg, Beth M., and Bjerneld, Magdalena. 2015. “‘It Is a Thin Line to Walk on’: Challenges of Staff Working at Swedish Immigration Detention Centres.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being 10 (March). https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.25196.Google Scholar
Reichlin-Melnick, Aaron. 2022. “Biden Released His Budget for 2023 – What Does It Mean for Immigration Issues?” Immigration Impact, 2022. https://immigrationimpact.com/2022/04/08/biden-immigration-budget-2023/.Google Scholar
Reisig, Michael D., Tankebe, Justice, and Mesko, Gorazd. 2014. “Compliance with the Law in Slovenia: The Role of Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy.” European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 20 (2): 259–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10610-013-9211-9.Google Scholar
Spohn, Cassia, and Holleran, David. 2000. “The Imprisonment Penalty Paid by Young, Unemployed Black and Hispanic Male Offenders.” Criminology 38 (1): 281–306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2000.tb00891.x.Google Scholar
Sunshine, Jason, and Tyler, Tom R.. 2003. “The Role of Procedural Justice and Legitimacy in Shaping Public Support for Policing.” Law & Society Review 37 (3): 513–548. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5893.3703002.Google Scholar
Tankebe, J. 2010. “Identifying the Correlates of Police Organizational Commitment in Ghana.” Police Quarterly 13 (1): 73–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611109357324.Google Scholar
Tankebe, Justice, and Meško, Gorazd. 2015. “Police Self-Legitimacy, Use of Force, and ro-Organizational Behavior in Slovenia.” Trust and Legitimacy in Criminal Justice: European Perspectives, January, 261–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09813-5_12.Google Scholar
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. 2022. “New Deportation Proceedings Filed in Immigration Court.” TRAC Immigration. 2022. https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/ntanew/.Google Scholar
Trinkner, Rick, Tyler, Tom, and Atiba Goff, Phillip. 2016. “Justice from Within: The Relations between a Procedurally Just Organizational Climate and Police Organizational Efficiency, Endorsement of Democratic Policing, and Officer Well-Being.” Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 22 (2). https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-13452-001.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom, and Fagan, Jeffrey. 2008. “Legitimacy and Cooperation: Why Do People Help the Police Fight Crime.” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 6 (231). https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/414/.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. 2003. “Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and the Effective Rule of Law.” Crime and Justice 30 (January): 283–357. https://doi.org/10.1086/652233.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. 2006. “Psychological Perspectives on Legitimacy and Legitimation.” Annual Review of Psychology. Annual Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190038.Google Scholar
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. n.d. “Agency Website.” Accessed February 12, 2024. https://www.ice.gov/.Google Scholar
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 2017. “ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Report.” https://www.ice.gov/remove/removal-statistics/2017.
Google Scholar
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 2023. “Year in Review: ICE Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report.” https://www.ice.gov/features/2023-year-review.
Google Scholar
Ugelvik, Thomas. 2016. “Techniques of Legitimation: The Narrative Construction of Legitimacy among Immigration Detention Officers.” Crime, Media, Culture 12 (2): 215–232. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659016648180.Google Scholar
Vega, Irene I. 2018. “Empathy, Morality, and Criminality: The Legitimation Narratives of U.S. Border Patrol Agents.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44 (15): 2544–2561. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1396888.Google Scholar
Vega, Irene I. 2019. “Toward a Cultural Sociology of Immigration Control: A Call for Research.” American Behavioral Scientist 63 (9): 1172–1184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219835251.Google Scholar
Waddington, P. A. J. 1998. Policing Citizens: Police, Power and the State. London u.a.: Routledge. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Policing-Citizens-Police-Power-State/dp/1857286936/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1429005487&sr=8-28&keywords=policing+protest.Google Scholar
Wadhia, Shoba Sivaprasad. 2009. “The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law.” Conn. Pub. L. J 9.Google Scholar
Wagner, Erich. 2022. “AFGE Will Split from Its ICE Union Over Ideological Divide.” Government Executive, 2022.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.17323/1726-3247-2018-3-68-78.Google Scholar
Zelditch, M. 2001. Theories of Legitimacy. Edited by Jost, J. T. & Major, B.. Cambridge University Press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-18767-001.Google Scholar